Considering the dyad in promoting positive health change: from observation to intervention

Abstract

Summary: A large literature suggests there are health benefits to close relationships, particularly being married or in a long-term intimate relationship. Consistent with this, marriage has been related to the practice of healthier behaviors, faster recovery and better health across a number of chronic illnesses. However, interventions that have attempted to capitalize on the influence of close others, including marital partners, have achieved more limited success. We examine a number ways in which partners improve health behavior and health outcomes. The first paper examines how dissimilarity between partners’ illness representations affects the psychological well-being of recently-diagnosed cancer patients and their spouses. The second paper examines whether improvements in CVD risk factors in one partner within a couple are associated with improvements in the other partner among 1,662 married couples who have a preventive physical examination in each of two successive years. They are, particularly for couples in which one partner had high levels of the risk factor. The third paper documents how the association between cardiac patients' sense of relational entitlement and their level of medication adherence is moderated by their partner’s caregiving styles (i.e., sensitive and compulsive). The fourth paper is a longitudinal study examining spousal influences on increasing exercise behavior among 104 couples in which one partner as osteoarthritis. Two emotional regulation skills – mood clarity and mood repair –influenced the initiation of physical activity. Together, these papers highlight the importance of examining self-regulatory processes from a dyadic perspective. Aims: The symposium identifies some dyadic-level psychological mechanisms that lead to positive health outcomes and identified the potential benefits of engaging both partners in self-management behaviors in behavioural medicine interventions. Rationale: Understanding health-behaviour change in social context and identifying target points for effective behavior change (i.e, couples) is likely to lead to the design of more effective interventions.